Challenge courses are structures that allow a person or team to challenge themselves by participating in various events, such as walking along swinging ropes or planks, at elevated heights. These courses are also used to train military personnel. These courses are also used at recreational parks or other such centers that have go-carts and miniature golf.
Zip lines are generally ropes or cables that are connected at both ends to fixed members of varying heights. In other words, one end is higher than the other. A participant then, by use of a pulley that rotatably engages with the rope or cable, glides from the higher end to the lower end.
The present invention is a zip track and system that allows a user to move or displace from one location to another without effort on the user's part. This movement or displacement may be performed primarily by the force of gravity. This differs from the prior art in that it may be integrally connected to a challenge course, or it may be a stand-alone system. The present invention also, rather than using cables or ropes, uses a fixed member, such as a beam or track along which the user is displaced via a glide or wheeled structure that glides or rolls within the beam or track.
There exists a need for a zip track system that enables a user to traverse from a challenge course to a zip track or from the zip track to a challenge course without disengaging from the glide or wheeled structure. This allows the user to travel at higher speeds than a zip line using a rope or cable due to the sagging that must occur in the rope or cable zip line. The present invention also allows for safer and more expedient movement throughout the course because the user can stay engaged in the same glide structure or wheeled structure throughout the system.
There also exists the need to increase the safety while not decreasing the capacity of participants traversing the challenge course.
Multiple embodiments of the system are disclosed herein. It will be understood that other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.